Paul McCartney meets Linda Eastman

On May 15, 1967, Paul McCartney met American photographer Linda Eastman for the first time, who later became his wife in March 1969. They met at a Georgie Fame concert at The Bag O’Nails in London. Paul was joined by Dudley Edwards and Stanislas Klossowski de Rola, who were staying with him at his Cavendish home. Linda was in the UK on an assignment to photograph “swinging sixties” musicians in London.

Four days later, Paul and Linda met again at the launch party for the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album at Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein’s house in Belgravia.

From Wikipedia:

The Bag O’Nails was a live music club and meeting place for musicians in the 1960s and situated at 9 Kingly Street, Soho, London, England.

Bands and other musicians who played and socialised there included Georgie Fame, Jimi Hendrix, Bobby Tench, The Gass and Eric Burdon. The venue also hosted an early gig by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and others frequented the venue including Tom Jones, The Who and The Animals.

After the Beatles’ recording sessions in London, their roadie Mal Evans, personal assistant Neil Aspinall and Paul McCartney would eat at The Bag O’Nails and it was one of their favourite venues. McCartney met his future wife Linda Eastman at the club on 15 May 1967. Another event is recorded in Mal Evans’ memoirs: “January 19 and 20: I ended up drunk in The Bag O’Nails with McCartney and Aspinall”.

In 1966, John Gunnell and Laurie Leslie re-opened the club under its old name, and it became a late night home to the growing Rock Fraternity and other celebrities.

The night I met Linda I was in the Bag O’Nails watching Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames play a great set. Speedy was banging away. She was there with the Animals, who she knew from photographing them in New York. They were sitting a couple of alcoves down, near the stage. The band had finished and they got up to either leave or go for a drink or a pee or something, and she passed our table. I was near the edge and stood up just as she was passing, blocking her exit. And so I said, ‘Oh, sorry. Hi. How are you? How’re you doing?’ I introduced myself, and said, ‘We’re going on to another club after this, would you like to join us?’

That was my big pulling line! Well, I’d never used it before, of course, but it worked this time! It was a fairly slim chance but it worked. She said, ‘Yes, okay, we’ll go on. How shall we do it?’ I forget how we did it. ‘You come in our car’ or whatever, and we all went on, the people I was with and the Animals, we went on to the Speakeasy.

Paul McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

When I came to London in 1967, The Beatles and Stevie Winwood were the two acts I was determined to photograph. Having already taken the first pictures of Traffic in Berkshire, that left only The Beatles.

I took my portfolio over to Brian Epstein’s office and left it with his assistant, Peter Brown. While I was waiting for his response I happened to meet Paul at a club called the Bag O’Nails in Kingly Street, London where I had gone with Eric Burdon and some other friends to see Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames.

Paul walked in after we had arrived and came and sat at the table right next to us. It was one of those “our eyes met” situations. As I was about to leave Paul came over and invited me to go with him to The Speakeasy which was not too far away in Margaret Street. That was where we all heard “Whiter Shade Of Pale” for the first time and fell in love with it; we all thought it must be Stevie Winwood, but it turned out to be Procol Harum.

Linda McCartney – from “Linda McCartney’s Sixties“, 1992

I can still recall our first meeting. It was at a London club, the Bag O’ Nails, when Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames were playing one night. Across a crowded room, as they say, our eyes met and the violins started playing – but they were drowned out by, of all people, Georgie Fame. Another northerner.

There was an immediate attraction between us. As she was leaving – she was with the group the Animals, whom she’d been photographing – I saw an obvious opportunity. I said: “My name’s Paul. What’s yours?” I think she probably recognised me.

It was so corny, but I told the kids later that, had it not been for that moment, none of them would be here. Later that night, we went on together to another club, the Speakeasy. It was our first date and I remember I heard Procol Harum’s A Whiter Shade of Pale for the first time. It became our song.

Paul McCartney – Interview with The Sunday Times, April 2008

We flirted a bit, and then it was time for me to go back with them and Paul said, ‘Well, we’re going to another club. You want to come?’ I remember everybody at the table heard A Whiter Shade Of Pale that night for the first time and we all thought, Who is that? Stevie Winwood? We all said Stevie. The minute that record came out, you just knew you loved it. That’s when we actually met. Then we went back to his house. We were in the Mini with I think Lulu and Dudley Edwards, who painted Paul’s piano; Paul was giving him a lift home. I was impressed to see his Magrittes.

Linda McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

One night Chas Chandler, the former bass player of the Animals, took Linda to a popular club called the Bag of Nails to hear Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames. Paul and I were at the “Bag” for a drink after he had finished a long mixing session, and I introduced Linda to him. Linda went on with Paul to a second club, the Speakeasy, but they got separated later in the evening as they were joined by Eric Clapton, Keith Moon, Peter Townshend, and Roger Daltrey. Linda went home alone. The next day Linda called me in the office. She said she had a new portfolio of Rolling Stones pictures, and since I was a fan, I asked her up to my office to have a look. I admired one of Brian Jones, whom we had coincidentally run into the night before, and Linda gave it to me as a gift. In return, I gave her an invitation to the Sergeant Pepper photo session.

Peter Brown – From “The Love You Make“, 2002

From Daily Mail Online, August 16, 2010:

[…] On Friday, January 13, 1967, [Jane Asher, Paul’s girlfriend] flew to the United States with the Bristol Old Vic for a four-and-a-half-month tour. Paul was not at Heathrow to see her off. Even if he’d liked his own company, there was no way he was going to spend all that time alone. He was going to have his mates round, pick girls up, drink, take drugs, leave his clothes where he dropped them and the dishes unwashed.

Two pals moved in to keep him company — the artist Dudley Edwards and Prince Stanislas Klossowski de Rola, the playboy son of the French painter Balthus. Stash — as he was known — had just been charged with possession of cocaine and cannabis, along with his friend, the Rolling Stone Brian Jones.

In St John’s Wood, the three young men entertained what Stash describes as harems of girls, while Beatles fans camped outside, periodically bursting in through the gates ‘sort of like cattle breaking through a fence’.

Then, one night in May 1967, Paul, Dudley and Stash drove over to the Bag o’Nails, one of London’s trendy clubs. It was packed with people, many of whom Paul knew, including Peter Brown who worked for The Beatles.

It was Peter who introduced Paul to an American photographer called Linda Eastman, who was in town shooting pictures of musicians. When Dudley came back from the bar, he found Paul and Linda engrossed in conversation. Dudley paired up with the singer Lulu, and Paul asked everybody back to his place. Half an hour later, Linda found herself inside the home of one of the world’s most eligible bachelors. Memories are hazy about whether she slept with him that night.

Stash and Dudley say it didn’t seem important at the time. ‘You just think, it’s yet another girl, and yet another night,’ says Dudley. […]

A few days after meeting Paul, Linda showed up at the Belgravia home of Beatles manager Brian Epstein for the press launch of their new album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was noted that she made a beeline for Paul, crouching at his feet by the fireplace and looking up into his face.

That weekend, she tried calling him at home and got Stash on the line instead. He told her Paul was in Liverpool. Unfazed, Linda said she wanted to come over anyway. So she did — and promptly fell into bed with Stash. It was a bizarre weekend. While Stash and Linda were rolling around together, Paul phoned to tell his lodger to move out. So Stash took Linda to stay with the musician Graham Nash. And soon their affair was common knowledge in London’s rock community. ‘I was teased extensively by Roger Daltrey and [Jimi] Hendrix and so on, because, you know, Linda had gone around,’ says Stash, ungallantly. ‘But… you’ve got to put these things in context: everybody had very open relationships, and it wasn’t cool to be jealous.’

Yet when Linda flew back to New York shortly afterwards, her conversation was not about Stash, but Paul McCartney. Once again, she informed Nat Weiss, who was on the same flight, that she was going to marry the Beatle.

Howard Sounes – From Daily Mail Online, August 16, 2010

When Linda Eastman came to town from New York for an assignment on the London scene for “Rolling Stone” magazine she stayed in our guestroom for a few weeks, dating Simon Hayes who was our manager at that time. Since I have been a vegetarian from childhood for ethical reasons and the others in the house followed suit, at least while I was around, I suppose she took this to heart and became a vegetarian herself. Linda and I got along well and she took some nice pictures of us on Primrose Hill. Little did we know she would get married to Paul a year or so later.

Marijke Koger – From the collective The Fool – From 10. MEET THE BEATLES – (marijkekogerart.com)

Going further

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.